Idea List for Shaping

Okay, to follow up on the shaping post, here is my, not-yet-completed list of things to shape. When I get it finished, I will post in on my website. If you would, please look over the list, alert me to any duplications you see and write up your own suggestions. They don’t need to be “tricks” but rather responses you can shape. Some with props, some without. Certainly there are some behaviours unique to certain dogs. It may be easier to teach one do to speak quietly than another. Some of the behaviours I have taught to one of my dogs I likely wouldn’t consider for another (for example I don’t know if I would trust Buzz to hold a lite cigarette the way I did Stoni (he may decide he liked it too much but knowing him he would move on and get with Micheal Phelps for some real action:))). Seriously there are physical strengths and weaknesses that makes one response more suitable for one dog over another. I wouldn’t teach a hand stand to a dog that wants to pull on their front end in agility but I would get them walking upright (provided they were strong enough for it). You also must consider the age, and physical attributes of your dog and perhaps consult a PT before you undertake them. Mostly they should be fun for both of you.

List of Ideas to Shape

Shake a Paw

ItsYerChoice (cookies on your paws, face etc)

Stoni performing "hold" and "Pals" - - Shelby being a good sport!

Wave

Bow

Cross Paws in Down

Walk while crossing paws

Chase tail one way then the other

Show me Your Belly

Stretch while on your back

Speak

Speak quietly

Talk (different than barking)

Crawl

Back up

Jump Into My Arms

Limping on front leg

Don’t Peak (cover your eyes)

Dig

Roll Over (one way) Tumble (the other)

Play Dead

Moonwalk (back up while laying down)

Pop Backwards vs walk backwards

Jump Up & Down on the spot

Walk on Front Paws

Hold (any item)

Twister praying.

Stretch

Get Your Tail (wrap from legs around mine)

Take my Leg

Where’s Your Big Butt (lay down and put your butt in the air)

Target yourself with your nose

Meow (lick Lips & growl)

Dead Dog

Pray

Lick your lips

Wipe your face

cover your eyes

In the chair

Lift your rear leg on a person/chair etc

Wrap yourself in a blanket

Turn on/off lights

“no” turn head in disagreement (do you agree?)

sit up pretty

Stand tall

transition from sit pretty to tall

Transition from tall to sit pretty

Cover nose with both paws

yawn

open door / pull latch

pick up and carry

growl/ show teeth

lick your nose

go under chair

back flip

circle around something

High Five/10

target with rear paw Feature doing puppy Yoga; “downward facing dog”

Pals-put your arm around another dog

Stand on two paws (on same side)

Go to target & sit or down

retrieve Kleenex

Go-see–visit someone

Walk upright on hind legs

Feature sits pretty

circle right, circle left

Put toys away

Put stuff in the trash

Discriminate items on scent

Discriminate items on sight

Lay flat out on your side

Target your butt with your nose

Pivot on front legs

Pivot on rear legs (turn on haunches)

Show your teeth/smile

In a box then shrink it down—all paws in a tiny tupperware container

Stand with your front paws on my shoes

Walk with your front paws on my shoes

Walk up the walk with rear legs

Puppy yoga (downward facing dog)

Jump into arms

Jump through my arms

Jump and spin off of me

Jump onto my back

weaving backwards between legs

Encore playing ItsYerChoice

Puppy Pretzel (roll your head as far between your front legs as possible)

Bear Skin run – lay flat on with legs behind you and head on the ground

Praying on the bedside or chair

Kill the toy (shake it violently)

Clean the floor (allow me to drag you)

Balance on a physio disc

Sitting pretty lifting one front paw then the other

Give kisses

Hand Target

Give kisses to another dog

Climb a ladder

Ride a skate board

Be pulled by another dog

Stand with your 4 paws on my 2 legs (while I am sitting on the floor with my legs out in front)

Rest your head flat on the floor

Front paws up on the wall (like you are going to be frisked by a policeman)

Hide your head under the couch

Go to your bed,matt or other targeted location

Today I am grateful for the unique behaviours each of my dogs have learned over the years.

43 Comments

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Another behavior for improving balance is to put a boogiboard in a plastic kiddy pool and teach your dog to stand on it. You can gradually increase the water level, and once your dog has a really good grasp of it, you can even pull them on it when you’re in a real pool or lake.

“Say AH” really becomes helpful when she goes to see the veterinarian or as a demo for fun! Thanks for the list. You are right we sometimes forget about just the simple things that can be shaped into great, fun things to show off and to make us laugh.

Well, in the list I saw wave then later I saw sitting pretty – my Beagle-boy Shiloh will wave while sitting pretty. He also likes to dance or twirl while standing on his back legs. Both of my Beagles, Shiloh’n Shasta are Canine Good Citizens so they do have a few skills but they both can sit pretty, roll-over & back up. You can read more about them on our blog.

I love this list. I played with it for the month of July while I was living at our summer house with my 7 month old pup, and vowed that I would not think about agility, only tricks. I always worked in very short sessions, keeping everything to very short “clickable” parts and worked on something new every day. She absolutely loved the learning/ playtime and now, back in our real life, she comes to me at the same time every day with that look that says, “let’s play mom, I want to learn a new trick!” There is nothing like the undivided attention, energy and irresistable insistence of a puppy who loves to learn. Also, the daily game of doing tricks has evolved into simple flatwork and freestyle movements that have her thinking about working close to my body and away from my body. For example, she weaves at good speed through my legs as I walk forward or backward and widens or closes the loops depending on my arm movements. I never do this for more than about three passes through the “weaves,” then I tug or toss or treat so it’s a big reward for a small effort. The best thing about all of this is not just that I it helped my dog to love to play and learn (something I believe as people, with serious and busy lives, also deperately needed to learn), it has helped me unfocus on agility. We are having so much fun, we aren’t obsessed with obstacles and sequences like I was with my first agility dog. I know that when the time comes and puppy-bones are mature, she will be confident and focused and we will have the incredible relationship that I have always dreamed about having with my agility partner.

I teach my pups to close the kitchen cabinets…it helps them to get use to moving things and the reward doesn’t come until they “Bang” it. Also Saga’s infamous trick that earned me $5,000 in a trick contest….HUMP!!! ( I call it “Show some LOVE”) keep in mind she is a girl…and it has been very useful on the set… 😉 As always great idea to put it all these tricks on a list together!!

yesterday was my first “blog” experience. I realized that my positive self talk has dwindled. I am now inspired to “be grateful” on a daily basis like you Susan.
I am also inspired to get off my rear and start training more effectively my own dogs.
My volunteerism at the local dog club is no excuse!

Thank you for continued inspiration.
Today I am grateful I found this blog.

P.S. I love the photo of “show your teeth/smile” What’s the cue ?
Maybe “Howl With Me” isn’t truly shaped, because the cue is the behavior? In any case, it’s best saved for special occasions, like when no other members of the household are present.

There is only one tiny little thing. Apologies to John Pinette but number 41 should be “I say Nay Nay” !

If “weaving frontwards between legs” counts the same as weaving backwards, and “howl with me”, then we only have about 86 more things to do to catch up ….

About number 73, that tiny tupperware container (aren’t you glad you agreed to go to that party about 11 years ago !)… I can see your point about rear legs awareness… My doggie will get into a box, but when the container gets very tiny he puts 2 front legs in and gives me a look that says, confidently, “I’m IN “…

New (I hope) idea: “spazz” – it’s really “shake”, but not to be confused with the cue word when the dog offers his paw. This trick is to have the dog shake his whole body like dogs do when they get wet and want to dry off.

I have no clue how one would shape this. But I knew someone who used the cue word after a bath just before her dogs were about to shake. Once the dogs knew the cue, she found it a helpful command for several situations.

a video would be great, I definatly want to see the backflip and the standing on front legs. I’v never seen a dog do a backflip for anything but a toy/ frisbee. and the standing on the front legs! not many dogs can do a proper handstand!

Thanks for the list, we all love lists (so easy to tick them and move on apparently, I think I need a revolving list so I keep coming back to more foundations)

My puppy has been struggling with confidence on the seesaw so I have been working on shaping with things that are less stable.
I have just been shaping putting all 4 feet on a Dynaso ball, this is quite hard when the flat side is up. A bit easier when the flat side is down. Also been working with all 4 feet on a 55cm fit ball that is supported in a base so that it doesn’t roll. He managed this once in the 2nd session, but found it hard, so we will have to work for some duration. And we have also had a go at balancing an unsupported peanut shaped fitball as it moves in one plane.

As everyone else has said, great list. I’ve often gone out on the web looking for lists of tricks and end up yawning because it’s the same old stuff.

This list has lots of new things that we are going to have fun working on.

One idea (either ask your web guy or email me and I can explain), you should make this a “page”. That way, it will show up in your sidebar (Under the “Stuff about Susan” link) and be set aside from your regular posts.

I have a feeling lots of people are going to be referencing this list and coming back to it for inspiration. This would make it really easy to find.

How about lifting a rear leg/foot to touch something? A friends’ dog does this and it’s pretty funny – people think he’s about to pee! He will lift either rear leg and touch his paw to the nearest vertical object – a post, human leg, wall…..

My other favorite to shape is “Say AH”. Of course, this becomes helpful when she goes to see the veterinarian or as a demo for fun!
Thanks for the list. You are right we sometimes forget about just the simple things that can be shaped into great, fun things to show off and to make us laugh.
See you in a couple of weeks at Tweeners Camp!

Fantastic list. I found it fun to see several on the list I have done and ones I never even thought of.
I have a few I have shaped I think of as variations to some on your list but I don’t think they are on the list.
One is to target the wall or something specific with your nose from 15 ft away.
One of the others I taught my dog was to point – lift front leg and point it out to the side – my cue for this is “which way did he go?” (way)
I love all the ones where you have the dog touch different parts of their body – I taught my dog to put his nose under his front armpit when laying down.
I don’t think I saw any crawling – either forward or back ward.
Thanks again for the great list – now i am going to be having more fun with my pups.

For some additional tricks…
My girl also knows how to bring me her front paws, lift her back paws with her mouth, put bricks in a small tower, dig herself under the bed covers, scratch her back on the rug, put her rear paw on her nose (while lying down, working on standing version) and slalom a football between traffic cones with her nose.

Susan, thank you so much for the list! I look forward to your blog daily. There are some things in your list I will have to train my boy. BTW, not sure if you listed sneezing but I am currently working on that one.

Thank you so much for the shaping list! (I love lists – easier for me to sort thru than when the are part of a sentence). I believe you refer to many of these for Body Awareness as well? What about that Puppy Grid comment? What is that? (still wondering)

Thanks so much for your blog – it is really a wonderful bonus to be able to ‘chat’ and learn from you in this fashion.

I love your blog…you are a great trainer and a wonderfull inspiration for me. I will love to translate and paste in my blog this list of shaping (if you agree to) to share with other spanish speaker trainers….
Thank you very much for everything you share in this blog…
Besos desde España

Thanks Susan for everything your share daily with us. I just love your blog that is a great source of inspiration and reflexion. As today is a very sunny day our session of weave training (i’m at day 5 and it’s working great) is sure to be fun !

3 Trackbacks

[…] down an amazing foundation for agility. I would say no more than 5 of these behaviours are on our “tricks” list this group came up with earlier in the year. What may shock you is that none of these skills involve any equipment or […]

[…] without putting the puppy on equipment and another of tricks to teach. Since we already have a “trick” resource on this blog I felt it redundant to post those. Although there are some skills in this […]

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